Fall of Reach My version
by Bob 121
Summary: The story takes place just before Halo, at the Battle for Reach. for those of you who don't know, Reach is the last major human Fortress world where the Pillar of Autumn, the ship in Halo, escaped as it fell to the Covenant. Memo by Erik Nylund
1. Chapter 1: Order of Battle

**Chapter 1: Order of Battle**

**United Nations Space Command  
****Alpha Priority Transmission 04592Z-83  
****Encryption code: **Red  
**Public Key: **file /bravo-tango-beta-five/  
**From: **Admiral Roland Freemont, Commanding Fleet Officer,  
FLEETCOM Sector One Commander/ (UNSC Service Number: 00745-16778-HS)  
**To: **ALL UNSC warships in REACH, JERICO, and TANTALUS systems  
**Subject: **IMMEDIATE RECALL  
**Classification: **Classified (BGX Directive)

/start file/  
Covenant presence detected on REACH system's edge coordinates 030 relative. ALL UNSC warships are hereby ordered to cease all activities and regroup at rally point **ZULU **at best speed. **ALL SHIPS** are to enact the Cole Protocol immediately  
/end file/

**0400 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Reach Military Complex, 9th Division Garrison**

Pvt. Ethan Campbell awoke to the screeching noise with a start. It took him only an instant to realize that what he was hearing was not reveille but in fact was the emergency sirens. He scrambled out of his cot half awake alongside the other men in his barracks that were similarly surprised and confused. _What the hell? What in God's name is going on here?_ he thought to himself. Ethan overheard two Privates nearby talking about a Covenant attack. His brain shouted out in denial to the two Marine's mutterings; _The Covenant wouldn't attack Reach! Reach is the most heavily defended planet in this system! Besides we would have known about them long before they'd got here, it must be a drill. _"Yeah," he said to himself, "its nothing but a drill."

**0400 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****UNSC Cruiser _Argive _en route to Rally Point Zulu **

The _Argive's _bridge was engulfed in chaos; Capt. Anton Marshal's voice was barley audible over the screeching klaxons. "Coms I need a report ASAP! Tell me what the hell is going on out there!" The communications officer scrambled to fulfill the Captain's increasing demands. Anton Marshal was not a man that you would want to anger; tall, with a strong build and sharp facial features, the Captain was certainly an intimidating sight on the bridge as he prowled from station-to-station. "Navigation! What is our ETA?" "Uhh, about 20 minutes sir." _Good, maybe then we'll be able to find out how the hell those Covie bastards snuck up on us. _Marshal turned to the AI's holograph pedestal where the ship's AI construct; a semi-translucent holograph of a four-armed figure was standing; "Shiva, send out a tightbeam transmission to FLEETCOM and tell them our ETA is in 20 minutes, and while you're at it try to get us any intel you can on the enemy. I want numbers, classifications, positions, anything that we have I want it now." After a few moments the main NAV board lit up with data. Capt. Marshal stood there watching the data scroll by as if he had just been smacked across the face.

**0400 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****UNSC Carrier _Belisarious _nearRally Point Zulu**

"Come on Ray, hurry it up!" "Shut the hell up Greg! You wanna fuel your own bird?" Greg Rowan was the leader of Halo flight and embarrassingly enough he was also the last one of his flight to leave the hangar. "Hey you know what Ray? Never mind I think I'll just walk to the battlefield. Know where the nearest airlock is?" Ray, who had just finished fueling the Longsword let the pilot know by throwing a wrench at the cockpit, which instead hit the nose and bounced off back into the balding technician. "Hey Ray, I hope you're better at fueling than you are at throwing." As the Longsword pulled out of the hangar bay he saw the technician giving him a one-finger-salute and shouting profanities.

The FAC gave Greg clearance as he left the Carrier and moved Halo flight's coordinates. "All right Halo flight, sorry I was late but you know how those techies are." The rest of Halo flight broke into laughter; there was a kind of tension between some of the pilots and their techs, even though they don't really hate each other they would poke fun at each other as a means of putting aside their nervousness whenever they were going into a battle. "All right we've been assigned to anti-fighter duty for the destroyer _Argive_. It hasn't arrived yet but will shortly, meanwhile run diagnostics through your systems then run em again, we don't want anything going wrong that can be avoided. We stick to the plan and we'll all come through this in one piece."

**0423 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****UNSC Destroyer _Argive_ near Rally Point Zulu**

"Notify Admiral Stanforth that the _Argive_ has arrived" Captain Marshal barked, "Yessir" the Comm. Officer replied hastily. "Navigation, move us into position." The Comm. Officer turned to Capt. Marshall a few moments later; "The _Belisarious _has notified us that it has assigned Halo, Alpha, and Sierra squadrons for anti-fighter defense." Marshall nodded and without taking his eyes off the Nav-board he replied, "Send the Belisarious my thanks, Mr. Jansen"

The _Argive_ was one of the last UNSC ships to arrive at the rally point and quickly moved into position. The Covenant Fleet was already moving in and would be within firing range in a matter of minutes. The backbone of the UNSC's strategy relied not on the considerable number of ships gathered around Reach but instead on the twenty orbital MAC guns that had been arrayed to combat Reach's assailants. Each orbital platform fired what was essentially a huge ball of molten ferric-tungsten that was magnetically accelerated to near-light speed. The _Argive_, and numerous other UNSC vessels, were equipped with a similar version albeit less powerful. The plan was the orbital defense platform's MAC guns would deliver long-range crippling blows to the advancing Covenant fleet and the UNSC vessels would move in for the kill. The only weakness in the plan is the fact that the power source for the MAC guns, fusion reactors located on the surface of Reach, were highly vulnerable and if compromised would render the orbital guns useless.

**0425 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Halo Flight Squadron near UNSC Destroyer _Argive_**

"All right Halo Flight move into position around Argive." Flight Commander Rowan brought his Longsword into a lazy loop along the length of the destroyer; 50mm cannons and Archer missile pods flashing past his cockpit. He was uneasy about the upcoming battle, he could see the Covenant fleet approaching; it was huge, from what he could tell there were hundreds of ships and that wasn't good. "Halo flight, gear up, we're gonna have company any minute here. Try your best to stay near the Argiveand keep in contact with the rest of the squadron, I don't want any loners out there, that's the fastest way to die. One last thing; the Belisarious is nearby so if you need to rearm let them know you're coming in and try you're best to stay away from the Destroyer's cannons, they can't always be as discriminate between targets as we'd like." Rowan looked towards the oncoming fleet and for the first time in a long while, started to pray.

**0428 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****UNSC Destroyer _Argive _in position over Reach**

Capt. Marshall let out a sigh, "Well, here they come." _The fate of Reach could very well be decided in the first few minutes of the battle_, a nagging voice spoke from somewhere in the back of his mind, he quickly squashed the thought and turned away from the Nav-board. "Weapons Control, give me full power to the MAC gun, I want the Archer missile pods ready and the 50mm's loaded." Anton Marshall was nervous, regardless of the multiple campaigns that he'd served in and the countless battles he'd been through the Covenant always made him uneasy. _It's probably because they're so different, so_…._ alien. _He'd heard the stories of how the Navy had only won battles against the Covenant when there were at least three-to-one odds in their favor, and even then the losses they took were horrendous. He wouldn't have believed it possible if he hadn't witnessed many of the atrocities first hand. _It's those damn shields they have, we get hit by one plasma burst and we're out of the picture while we throw everything we have at them and they just keep coming. _The weapons officer pulled him from his trance, "Archer's are hot along with the 50mm's and the MAC will be ready shortly. Marshall turned and looked out the viewport at the enemy fleet "Very good."

**0436 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Orbital MAC Station _Validus _in orbit over Reach**

Bridge Commander Miguel Alvarez stood at the Command/Control center of the orbital "Super" MAC Gun _Validus_. His job was to essentially "snipe" the oncoming Covenant fleet while at maximum range. Many naval officers referred to MAC guns such as the _Validus_ as Super MAC guns because of the larger projectiles and greater force that they could produce. While a shipboard MAC could deliver deadly blows to enemy vessels they required multiple hits in order to completely incapacitate a Covenant capitol ship. The _Validus_, and the other orbital stations, required only a single hit to destroy their intended target thanks to the extra power provided by the groundside power plants. "Sir, the Covenant fleet has moved into maximum range. Requesting permission to open fire." Commander Alvarez nodded to the lieutenant, "Yes, you may open fire." There came a faint rumbling noise from the bowls of the station and then the deck suddenly vibrated as the station fired its main weapon.

Twenty super-heated spheres of metal sheared through the void crossing thousands of kilometers in just seconds. The projectiles finally found their mark, impacting their targets in two's and three's. The MAC rounds, though crude, were very effective, and one-by-one Covenant vessels died. A Cruiser, with its shields stripped by the force of the projectile's impact, shuddered as the ball of metal tore through its hull and hit it's reactor, causing it to go critical and explode in a ball of white-blue flame that engulfed another Cruiser, causing its shields to flicker and die. A MAC round tore into a Carrier, shorted out its energy shields penetrating its hull, and it continued on, carried by its momentum, into a picket ship, resulting in its complete destruction.

The Command deck of the _Validus _erupted in cheers as sixteen Covenant capitol ships and three support ships disappeared from the screen. Commander Alvarez looked over the screen as a wave of joy swept over him, it was quickly banished when the Covenant fleet returned fire on its attackers. Alvarez felt a wave of panic replace the joy as the uncountable plasma bursts came closer towards the human fleet. "Get that MAC reloaded NOW!"

**0437 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****UNSC Destroyer _Argive _insideReach Battle Zone**

"Evasive maneuvers! Get us out of their line of fire!" Right after the orbital station's initial volley the fleet had come under heavy fire. The _Argive_ hadn't even gotten a chance to get a proper targeting solution with its MAC before coming under fire by three separate plasma rounds. Capt. Marshall braced himself against the computer terminal as the destroyer went into a sharp turn away from the plasma bursts. "I want a targeting solution for the MAC, target the nearest cruiser and open fire." "Target locked captain, preparing to fire" The whole ship shook as it unleashed its deadliest weapon; the MAC round sped through space and impacted on a Covenant Cruiser that was trading blows with the UNSC Destroyer _Prometheus_. The round impacted the Cruiser, stripped its already weakened shields, and continued on into the Cruiser punching through a good portion of the ship. The entire bridge crew cheered as the _Prometheus_ finished off the wounded ship and then moved on to another target.

Even before the Cruiser was destroyed the com officer ran up to Marshall; "Sir there are Carriers moving in, FLEETCOM has ordered us to join the _Lancer_ and _Durus_ to move in and take them out" _Damn! I'd hoped the Carriers would be preoccupied a little longer, if those Carriers get bombers close enough in our formation then we're in big trouble. _The tactical officer called out, "The Carriers are beginning to deploy their fighters!" "Alright, target the nearest Carrier, share our telemetry with the _Lancer_ and _Durus_. I want us to fire as close as possible at the same time." The Comm. Officer relayed the message to both ships and an instant later all three ships opened fire almost simultaneously.

**0437 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Halo Flight Squadron near UNSC Destroyer _Argive_**

F.C. Rowan saw the tear-dropped shaped fighters pouring out of the Carriers. "Ok people we've got bogey's coming in fast so get ready. I just got word from the Argive that we're to target the bombers when they do come out but for now just focus on the fighters. A chorus of confirmations came over Rowan's earpiece as Halo flight spread out into attack formation; ahead of them Alpha squadron had already engaged the enemy fighters and were holding well, taking down two enemy fighters with no losses of their own. Seconds later Halo flight joined the battle alongside Sierra Squadron and tore into the Covenant fighters, cutting a swathe through the enemy formation, destroying or crippling a quarter of their number in one lethal pass. The initial pass was not a complete victory, however, Sierra squadron lost two Longswords and Halo six was crippled and leaking oxygen from a plasma hit to the cockpit.

Rowan brought his Longsword around in a tight arc and aimed his fighter towards Halo six's crippled ship. "Halo flight cover six until a shuttle can get him out" Rowan switched over to the Belisarious's CommNet; "This is Gregory Rowan, F.C. of Halo Flight, we have a crippled fighter out here and need immediate evac." Rowan heard an almost annoyingly calm voice answer over his earpiece, "Negative Halo Flight, the area is too hot for our shuttles your man is on his own, sorry." "Damn!" Rowan saw two Covenant fighters already heading towards the damaged Longsword, _Six'll never survive out here in the middle of this_. Rowan switched his comm. over to the squadron frequency, "Halo five and seven stick with six and keep those fighters off his back. Make sure to watch out for…." Rowan stopped in mid-sentence as a red light began flashing on his control board accompanied by an incessant beeping, Rowan glanced at the radar and uttered an oath; a second wave of fighters, over seventy-two Covenant craft, swarmed from the bowels of the nearest cruiser headed straight for them


	2. Chapter 2: Juggernaught

**Ch 2: Juggernaught**

**0502 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Orbital MAC Station _Validus_ in orbit over Reach**

The entire station shuddered as the MAC cannon released another salvo into the Covenant fleet. Twenty MAC rounds tore into the five Covenant Cruisers completely destroying them, but not before the Cruisers fired their own weapons. Commander Alvarez watched helplessly as the five plasma rounds tore into the orbital stations, leaving only wreckage and debris.  
"Shit!" Alvarez glanced at the NAV board just as five icons, each representing an orbital MAC station, disappeared from the screen. Alvarez turned to the Comm. Officer "Get me FLEETCOM immediately, tell them we need some cover here or we're screwed." The Comm. Officer complied and an instant later the majority of the nearby UNSC vessels had driven the Covenant back a comfortable distance away, suffering heavy losses in the process. Alvarez grimaced, using the UNSC ships as a shield was a necessary evil; the Orbital MACs were the backbone of the navy's plan, if they lost any more then they would lose Reach and with it leave Earth open to attack. _They might be a shield but no defense can hold the enemy at bay forever_. Alvarez turned to the Weapons Officer, "Well? What are you waiting for? Get us another target. Those navy boys saved our Asses, now its time to return the favor."

**0502 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****UNSC Destroyer _Argive _inside Reach Battle Zone**

Capt. Marshall stared at the NAV board in shock as five Orbital MAC Stations disappeared from the screen. _Christ! We just lost a quarter of our Orbital MACs! How the hell could we let them slip through this easily?_

The Comm. Officer ran up to Marshall's side and blurted out "Sir, FLEETCOM has ordered that all nearby ships to keep the Covenant Fleet back to a minimum distance of thirty-six thousand kilometers from the orbital stations."  
_Easier said than done_, a voice whispered from somewhere in the back of Marshall's mind. "I agree, we need to get those ships away from the MACs, otherwise they're done for." Marshall turned to the NAV board and saw the trio of enemy Carriers and a host of support vessels that had been giving his fighter screen an extremely hard time, "Weapons control, I want a targeting solution on the Carrier that we've damaged already, synchronize our fire with the Lancer and Durus. We'll need to help out our fighters if we're going to survive this."  
The _Argive's _MAC round tore through space and impacted the side of the damaged Carrier, joined seconds later by those of the _Lancer_ and _Durus_, shorting out the shields and destroying the Carrier entirely. The Tactical Officer confirmed the kill and Marshall smiled with grim satisfaction. "Prepare another MAC round and then get us into range with the archers, I want to shove a whole broadside down the bastard's throat. Mr. Jansen, please inform the _Lancer_ and _Durus_ that we're going to charge the Carriers, tell them we'll need them to tie up the support vessels long enough for us to get into range."  
The _Argive_ fired its MAC again, destroying a nearby support ship and charged headlong into the Carrier formation.

**0502 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Halo Flight Squadron near UNSC Destroyer _Argive_**

Rowan cursed as he threw his Longsword into an insanely tight turn, just missing one of his pursuers plasma bursts. The second wave of Covenant fighters had decimated Sierra squadron, killing five more Longswords and severely damaging another with only two losses of their own. Alpha squadron had fared far better, losing only two Longswords and managing to destroy eight Covenant fighters. As for his own Squadron, he'd lost Halo six, nine, and twelve, the worst part was hearing the helplessness in six's voice just before they killed him. "Seven I'm going to need you to cover me here I can't shake these two."  
Seven replied almost instantly; "Negative one, I can't get to you I've got three on my tail, you'll have to deal with you're yourself, sorry."  
In front of Rowan's fighter the trio of Destroyers began to speed towards the two remaining Carriers, and it was then that Rowan got a crazy idea, "Roger that, seven I think I've found a way to get them off me" Rowan put his engines on maximum and sped towards the _Argive's_ underbelly at full speed.  
Rowan saw the _Argive's _50mm turrets locking onto his fighter and flew straight towards them, jerking his Longsword out of the way milliseconds before they filled the area his fighter had just vacated with 50mm rounds. His two pursuers weren't as lucky; one was destroyed outright as the bullets punched through the cockpit and detonated his engines, and the other fighter veered hard left, right into a wall of bullets from a second 50mm cannon. Rowan didn't notice any of this since the _Argive's_ guns were still trying to shoot hisfighter; a 50mm round missed his cockpit by barely six inches, _those idiots are trying to kill me! _Rowan banked his Longsword around and hit the throttle sending the Longsword back towards the engagement zone.

**0518 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****UNSC Destroyer _Argive_ inside Reach Battle Zone**

The _Argive's _MAC round punched through the Carrier's portside hangar bays tearing a chunk out of the Carrier and destroying countless bombers and fighters in the process. "Alright open up with a full broadside to the exposed section. Throw everything we have at them."  
A full broadside of Archer missiles erupted from the Argive sending a wall of death hurtling towards the wounded Carrier. Dozens of missiles penetrated in the very heart of the vessel, taking out vital systems and tearing up the insides of the ship. Virtually powerless, and leaking oxygen in over two-dozen places, the Carrier would become a tomb to any Covenant unfortunate enough to have survived the pounding their vessel had weathered.  
Marshall turned to the Weapons Officer, "Target the next Carrier with the MAC and get those Archer pods reloaded immediately."  
The Weapons Officer looked at Marshall with a puzzled expression, "Sir, we aren't going to finish off the Carrier?"  
Marshall looked at the crewman with an irritated look on his face; "No, we aren't. There isn't enough ammunition to completely destroy something that is nearly dead already" he replied motioning towards the lamed vessel that filled the Argive's viewport. "Navigation, take us close to the final Carrier long enough for us to unload our ordinance and then get us the hell out of there." He turned back towards the Weapons Officer. "When we get to optimum range open fire with everything we've got, Archers and 50mm, I want those bastards dead in one pass. Understand?"  
The Weapons Officer nodded "Yessir." His fingers flying over the controls, preparing the _Argive's_ external ordinance racks for the massive barrage that Marshall had requested.  
Marshall looked through the viewport and saw the final Carrier through the debris of its two sister ships. His Longswords were still dog fighting with the Covenant fighters and bombers through the wreckage. Despite their initial success the fighters had been hit hard by the secondary waves of fighters and to his knowledge, Marshall had roughly two-thirds of his fighter screen left. _I guess that rules out a strike, too bad, those fighters could've been really useful against those carriers.  
_The Weapons Officer snapped Marshall out of his thoughts. "Captain, we're in maximum range of the Carrier, permission to open fire?  
Marshall nodded. "Permission granted, target their engines if possible, the faster we are the harder the target."  
A rumble sounded throughout the ship as the _Argive's_ MAC fired at the Carrier's engines. The MAC round speed through space at several hundred kilometers per second impacted the Carrier's engines dead on. The Carrier's shields flickered and died as the massive projectile overloaded its generators, punching through the port engine array and into the stern-most fighter bays.  
Marshall looked on with dismay._ Damn. I'd hoped that we'd have been able to cripple the Carrier; it'll still be able to move. Our chances of coming out of this undamaged are pretty slim now. I should've held off until we reached a closer range. _He glanced towards the Weapons Officer, "Good work Mr. Crawley. Now prepare to fire a massed broadside on my mark." A panicked voice filled the bridge; Marshall heard it coming from the Comm. terminal and made his way over to the console. "Mr. Jansen what's the problem?"  
The Comm. Officer cast a nervous glance at the Captain and stammered, "Sir two more Covenant Cruisers and their escorts have arrived to reinforce the Carrier. Lancer and Durus are trying to hold them off but they don't think they can for long."  
"Well I guess we've got to take that Carrier out quickly then. Tell the Lancer and Durus to hold them off as long as possible and to meet us back at the docks to rearm." _We're gonna have to make this quick, Lancer might be able to hold out for a while but Durus is damaged, we take too long on this and all three of us are going to end up dead._ "Navigation! Take us in full speed, cut power to the engines down to fifty percent when we reach the target and then get us out as fast as you can."The Tactical Officer called out to Marshall; "Sir! The Carrier has launched its bombers!"  
"How long until they reach our fighter screen?"  
"Approximately six minutes sir. I've alerted the fighter squadrons already. But they're pretty beat up."  
"Inform the fighters that we'll need them to cover us while we make our run on the Carrier. Tell them to stay close to our guns, we'll try our best to give them some cover with our 50mm's." _May God help them, I'm not sure we can._

**0523 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Halo Flight Squadron near UNSC Destroyer _Argive_**

Halo seven let out a cheer as the enemy fighter in front of him exploded. He didn't even have time to dodge out of the way before the second fighter loosed off a plasma volley right into his fighter's midsection, burning completely through the engines and destroying the ship.  
Rowan saw seven's immolated fighter and let out a curse. Seven's loss had brought Halo Flight down to half-strength. Aside from Rowan only five of the original twelve Longswords of Halo Flight were left. "Ok we've got to stay together. Two and three are with me, five, eight, and eleven form up. We're following the Argive in towards the Carrier, there's no way we'll last out here without nearby support."  
Ahead of Halo Flight Sierra Squadron was in trouble, having lost nearly three fourths of their number they were being swamped by enemy fighters. Even Alpha Squadron, one of the best fighter squadrons in the entire system, was having difficulty dealing with the sheer number of Covenant fighters. Yet regardless of the losses the trio of squadrons had suffered none proposed falling back, they all knew what would happen if the bombers managed to overwhelm the _Argive's_ defenses then the Destroyer was finished. The remnants of all three squadrons braced themselves as a fresh wave of fighters and bombers closed the gap.

**0534 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****UNSC Destroyer _Argive_ inside Reach Battle Zone**

Argive moved into position and opened up on the Carrier with everything she had; dozens of Archer missiles poured into its shields and hundreds 50mm rounds chipped away at armor each passing second. Finally the shields gave way and a second and third volley of Archers punched into the Carrier alongside a continuous rain of 50mm rounds. A few missiles punched deep into the Carrier's heart and impacted its generators causing a chain-reaction, which blew off the entire stern side of the ship. As the _Argive_ pulled away from the dying Carrier towards the rendezvous point the Covenant Cruisers did not attempt to follow; instead they turned back and started to move away from the battle, as did every other able Covenant ship in the system.  
Marshall stared at the Tact. Display with disbelief. Marshall overheard one of the bridge crew, he wasn't sure who, probably a Lieutenant, exclaim "Ha, that's right, we beat em' back. We've defeated the Covenant!" _No, no no, this isn't right. The Covenant aren't known to run from a battle, especially when they're on the brink of victory. Why didn't they move in and finish us? _Marshall glanced back towards the Tact. Display and winced inwardly.  
Approximately twenty UNSC vessels were left in operational condition. _Durus_ had been destroyed holding off the Cruisers long enough for _Argive_ to take out the Cruiser and _Lancer_ was drifting powerless some distance away leaking oxygen from numerous rents in her hull. Over a hundred destroyed UNSC vessels littered the space around Reach and an unknown number of Covenant craft accompanied them.  
_There's no way the Covenant are just giving up. We need to get back and rearm before they decide to come back. _Marshall turned to the Nav. Officer; "We need to get to the rendezvous point with the rest of the fleet." _If you can still call it a fleet_.  
The Nav. Officer stared at Marshall for a moment with a look of shock plastered on her face. "Captain what about Lancer? There could still be crew trapped inside. We need to help them."  
Marshall didn't look at the woman who had just voiced what his conscience screamed at him to do. "Negative, we can't help them, we need to get to the rendezvous point before the Covenant come back at us.  
Once again Marshall heard the officer speaking to him, this time there was a tremble in her voice, whether of anger or sorrow he couldn't tell. "The Covenant have retreated sir! They lost almost a hundred ships! Nobody would ever keep coming against the MAC platforms! We have to help the Lancer!  
Marshall turned towards the Officer; rage temporarily taking over at the fact that he wholeheartedly agreed with what his Nav. Officer wanted to do but knew he couldn't save the Lancer's crew. "That is a negative! We need to return to the rendezvous point before the Covenant return again. Think about it, why would the Covenant retreat from a battle that they could have easily won? We have _twenty_ ships left; even with the Orbital MACs they could still get this planet if they really wanted to. They're up to something and are going to be coming back at us twice as hard as before. We can't help the Lancer's crew if we're dead, once this battle is over then we'll be able to help them, not any sooner."  
The bridge was dead silent save for the electrical hum of machinery and the Nav. Officer's strangled sobs, then the Comm. Officer broke the silence. "Sir, message from FLEETCOM! Enemy dropships have been spotted near the northern and southern poles! They're trying to land on Reach!  
Somewhere deep in Marshall's subconscious an antagonizing voice sprung into existence, _I told you so. _"How many are there?"  
"Unknown. At least a thousand, probably more."  
A chill ran up Marshall's spine. _They're going for the generators! If we lose those then Reach is wide open for attack!_ "Take us to the nearest pole, we need to destroy as many of those dropships as we can. Send out our Longswords too, tell them to keep on those dropships until they're out of targets or ammunition."  
The _Argive_ reached the northern pole along with several other UNSC vessels. Most were Marathon-class Cruisers or Frigates but there was a light Carrier, _The Bismuth, _anda Halcyon-class Cruiser, _The Pillar of Autumn. _The combined efforts of the nine UNSC vessels destroyed hundreds of dropships but hundreds more survived long enough to descend to the surface of Reach. Marshall looked out the viewport at the surface of Reach with a feeling of pity for the men and women on the planet. _They're gonna be in for a hell of a fight._


	3. Chapter 3: Landfall

**Ch 3: Landfall**

**0536 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Reach Northern Hemisphere, Merion River Valley**

Recon Sniper Hannah Davis looked down on the advancing alien horde with unbridled fear. The alien dropships fell like rain; each disgorging dozens of aliens onto the valley floor, there were easily thousands of the enemy already moving down towards the generator complex.  
Hannah switched her headset frequency to her dispatch. "This is recon 2-A; have a visual of Covenant ground forces at approximately one hundred degrees forty seven degrees latitude.  
For a couple of seconds there was only static and then a voice broke through; "Roger that recon 2-A, can you give us an approximate number of hostiles?"  
What the hell is wrong with them? Why are they asking me? They can get a satellite image of the valley... unless the satellites are down! But that means... "There's thousands of em' with more on the way. It looks like they're moving down the valley towards the Omega Armory. The way they're moving I'd say the first elements will reach it in ten to fifteen minutes."  
There was a couple more seconds of static before the officer replied again; "Roger that recon, HighCom has ordered you to pull back to the armory.  
Hannah looked down at the sea of Covenant making they're way down the valley with incredulity at what she'd just heard the man at the other end just say. "Sir, did I just hear you say to make my way to _Omega Armory_?"  
This time there was no delay of static; the officer answered her question immediately, annoyance easily detectable in his voice. "Affirmative recon 2-A you are to make your way to _Omega Armory_ ASAP. They'll need all the help they can get holding it if there's as many hostiles as you say there are."  
Glancing at the enemy dropships that kept falling like hail to the planet below Hannah picked her sniper rifle up off the boulder it had been resting on, shaking her head in utter disbelief. "Sir, with all due respect, there is no way we'll be able to hold the armory even with the entire garrison fully entrenched."  
Once again her dispatch officer replied instantly, this time he sounded agitated and Hannah could hear someone shouting something indiscernible in the background. "Omega Armory is the largest weapons cache we have in the immediate area. It's the only thing standing between the generators and the Covenant. It has to hold. You have your orders."  
As much as Hannah wanted to argue with him she knew he was right; if the Covenant got the generators then Reach would be lost. "Roger that, moving out." Hannah slung her rifle over her shoulder and began to make her way through the dense evergreen forests towards the armory, hoping she got there before the Covenant did.

**0544 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega**

Pvt. Campbell's Sergeant was shouting orders to almost anyone who twitched. The ride to Omega Armory had been hectic; less than two hours to transport the entire ninth division and then get defensive emplacements set to optimum efficiency in addition to distributing ammo. "Mellani, Carter, Wilson! Get into position now! I want everyone into defensive positions ASAP!" Then he motioned towards the edge of the valley where the first wave of Covenant had already appeared some six hundred yards away and were presently being pummeled by the armory's long-range artillery. "They're going to throw they're Grunts at us first and'll probably keep trying until we're wore down enough. Now we can't afford to lose this position. If we break here and the Covenant make it to the Orbital Generators the Orbital MACs are useless and we're all as good as dead." He let this all sink in and finally shouted "But that's not gonna happen, is it Marines?" He was awarded with a chorus of hoo-hah's and then got down behind the barricade, settling into the trench.  
A second barrage of artillery fire pounded the advancing Covenant killing hundreds. Still they came, huge groups of Grunts bounding to reach the marine's positions virtually uncaring about the losses they suffered. The surviving aliens were pummeled again by a third barrage but kept right on running towards their objective. The first wave of Grunts was nearly two hundred yards away from the marine line now and was exchanging fire with the deeply entrenched marines.  
Campbell fired his battle rifle without the aid of the weapon's scope; he didn't even need to aim; this is what his instructors would have referred to as a "target rich environment" which basically meant that you could shoot pretty much anywhere and hit something you wanted to. The dull thump of the artillery was nearly deafening by now, the guns were firing almost incessantly due to the size of the enemy force. Behind the first wave of Grunts was a second, third, fourth, and fifth wave just waiting for their brethren in front of them to die thus giving them a chance to kill the humans. Campbell's shot hit a Grunt in the forehead; the armor piercing round tearing into his skull before detonating inside the alien's grey matter, exploding his head in a shower of gore. Beside him Pvt. Mellani, armed with a "Jackhammer" Rocket Launcher fired into the advancing tide of enemies, both rockets blasting huge holes in the already weakened Grunt line. However, even as the first wave began to falter beneath the weight of the marines' fire they revealed a fresh wave of enemy targets.

**0544 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Halo Flight Squadron over Reach's Northern Hemisphere**

Rowan jerked his fighter out of the way of a burning dropship as the planet's gravitational forces proved too much for it's failing engines and tore it out of the sky. As his Longsword shot back to the battlezone he cursed inwardly at himself; _there's too many of these friggin dropships, we'll never be able to take enough out before they get groundside._ Nevertheless he targeted the nearest horseshoe-shaped dropship and let fly an ASGM-10 missile. Before he even saw the explosion engulf the dropship in a sphere of red-orange flame he had already targeted another dropship and loosed his second missile at its target, which, like the first, exploded in a shower of rapidly dissipating blossom of flame and debris.  
Rowan heard a panicked voice buzzing in his eardrum; it wasn't anyone he could recognize but with the state of disarray the Longsword squadrons were in he wasn't really surprised at the fact. "We've got Seraph's coming in hot! I repeat; enemy fighters inbou…" The voice was abruptly cut short by a hiss of static as the pilot's cockpit was most likely engulfed in plasma.  
Once again Rowan cursed; there were too many dropships already but now with Covenant fighters joining the fray his job would be all the more difficult. Rowan switched his comm. over to the squadron frequency. "Two, three stay on my wing, we're going to blast our way through the dropships. We need to try to get to the fighters before they can mix with the dropships." Both Halo two and three voiced that they understood and seconds later the three fighters were juking and jinking through tumbling wreckage, slashing plasma, and cruising dropships as they sped towards downed Longsword's last location.  
Rowan switched to weapons control over his two rotary cannons and set them to tracer fire once every ten rounds before firing straight ahead of him into the hurtling morass of ships and debris. Rowan saw two other lines of cannon fire stitching through the air beside his; he could hardly believe that two and three had managed to stay on his wing this entire time in all the chaos. Halo one, two, and three sped through the engagement zone destroying anything that got in their way as they went, taking out about a dozen more dropships before they reached the Covenant's Seraph fighters.  
Covenant fighters, nicknamed Seraphs by UNSC fighter jockeys for an unknown reason, were the Covenant's main offensive option against the UNSC's Longsword fighters. Though unshielded like the Covenant dropships they are very deadly due to their armament of high-velocity plasma torpedoes that hunt down enemy fighters with brutal efficiency. A Seraph is fast too; a skilled pilot could easily fly circles around a Longsword fighter. Roughly teardrop shaped a Seraph looks needle-like crimson blur when going at full speed.  
At this moment Rowan could see two squadrons of Seraphs bearing down on the engagement zone. They sped towards battlezone without so much as an indication that they were aware a flight of Longswords was sneaking up behind their formation. The three Longswords swung around behind the rearmost Seraph formation and held a distance of sixty meters behind them. Rowan switched over to his missiles and targeted the outermost fighter and then opened his flight's frequency; "Two, three target the fighters on the outside of the formation. We might be able to get off two missiles off without them even knowing we're there." In truth, Rowan was amazed that the fighters hadn't broken formation and sent him to a fiery grave, _I guess with all the crap going on up here they aren't really concerned with three enemy contacts, well lets show them the error of their ways.  
_All three Longswords fired off their first missiles in unison and seconds later they were rewarded with three painfully bright explosions as their missiles found their mark. Seconds after the first missiles hit their targets a second volley was launched reducing three more Seraphs to their component atoms. By now the Seraph squadron knew something was up and broke formation falling back towards the origin of the attack. Rowan knew that the Longswords were no match against the Seraphs if they stayed in formation so he ordered them to break off and engage the enemy.  
Rowan jerked his fighter to the left alongside Halo three as a plasma round tore into the area where his Longsword had occupied mere seconds before. Rowan switched from missiles over to the Longsword's dual rotary cannons with a shake of his head, he'd hoped they could have evened the odds before breaking formation and inviting a dogfight. Missiles, while helpful, operated much more effectively against moving targets when properly locked, which, unfortunately for him, required a few seconds more than he could spare when he had an enemy trailing him and besides that he was running low on missiles anyway.  
An edgy voice issued through Rowan's earpiece; "This is Halo two in need of assistance. I have two; make that three bogeys on my tail. Requesting assistance from any nearby freindlies." Rowan brought his fighter around in a tight arc in an effort to shake off any of his pursuers before blasting towards two's position. It didn't look good; two wasn't exaggerating when he said that he needed help. It was as if the four fighters were performing some incredibly complex dance; two's fighter twirled around in nearly impossible helix dodging plasma sometimes by mere centimeters, the liquid energy painting the Longsword an almost beautiful shade of purple by its proximity to the fighter. The beautiful dance ended abruptly seconds later when a plasma round burnt right into two's aft wing shearing it off completely causing his fighter to thrash into an uncontrolled dive which, at the speeds his Longsword was currently experiencing, tore his smashed fighter into shreds.  
Cursing at the Seraphs, Rowan targeted the lead fighter, armed his last missile, and fired it as soon as he heard the telltale buzz that indicated a successful target lock. He switched over to his cannons and sprayed a hail of bullets into the two remaining Seraphs who were still too confused at the sudden destruction of their leader to be in any coherent state.  
It was only after the three Seraphs had been destroyed that Rowan noticed an altogether different buzz than the one that belonged to his targeting system; he was low on fuel, ammunition, oxygen, and to top it off his Longsword was damaged in half-a-dozen places, Rowan shook his head; if the readings his screen gave him were accurate it was a miracle that his bird hadn't fallen apart already. Bringing his fighter into a steep decline, Rowan aimed his fighter towards the surface of Reach towards the nearest UNSC facility for repairs.  
As his much-abused fighter neared the huge military facility he overshot a seething mass of bodies below him. For a moment he thought that he had merely passed over a meadow but once he got a little lower in altitude he could clearly identify the insect-like shapes of Wraith mortar tanks. _Christ! I know we'd missed a lot of dropships but not that many! _There were streams of plasma arcing in lazy parabolas over the battlefield and the gentle plumes of smoke that issued from the installation's artillery.  
He heard an extremely strained voice crackle over his earpiece; "Unidentified flyer this is HighCom Armory Omega, please transfer your naval identification codes. Failure to comply will result in the destruction of your aircraft, you have thirty seconds."  
_Wow! These guys aren't playing around, they're pretty freaked out, but I can't really blame them with that huge army practically on their doorstep, man the navy really screwed up royally today. _Rowan hastily punched in his ID codes and transferred them to the command center's computer. He held his breath as he neared the base; _seeing as they're so jumpy they might just decide to play it safe and blast me outta the sky.  
_The voice returned, now sounding more relieved, through Rowan's earpiece again just as he crossed over the armory's defensive perimeter; "Welcome Flight Commander Rowan, how can we be of service today?"  
A wide grin spread over Rowan's face as he felt a wave of relief wash over him. "Well, you can start by giving me a place to land."

**0558 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****UNSC Destroyer _Argive _in geosynchronous orbit over Reach**

The remains of the UNSC fleet mopped up the few Covenant dropships that hadn't been quick enough to reach the inner atmosphere of the planet. They numbered around twenty in all; less than a tenth of the original UNSC vessels remained in a battle ready state. Several other surviving UNSC vessels were spread throughout the system albeit not considered battle-ready in the slightest.  
At this moment however, Marshall couldn't worry about their helpless allies or their dying crew. He had to regroup with the remaining force in a last ditch effort to stage some form of defense for the surviving orbital MACs. The stranded crews would have to wait, however much it killed him to admit it, if they were to have any chance of saving Reach from the horrific fate that so many other human worlds had had to suffer.  
"Sir, our sensors have picked up many gravitational distortions at the edge of the system. They match up almost perfectly with the known effects of Covenant warp drives."  
Marshall swore; the crew, used to his casual curses by now didn't even stir. "Inform the groundside installations that we probably won't be able to hold for much longer. Tell them that we'll hold for as long as we can but we can't make any promises."  
Marshall walked over to the viewport and once again glanced at the lush-green planet below with an expression of deep sorrow. _Such a pretty place. It's practically a sin that a world as beautiful as this is going to be destroyed for no reason. I wonder if anything we could have done differently would have changed its fate. _Marshall turned and solemnly made his way back to the center of the bridge.  
The Comm. officer turned to Marshall; "Sir, most of the Longswords are running low on fuel and ammunition. The _Belisarious_ is gone and the only Carrier left is The Bismuth but she's out of range. The fleet is redirecting them to the groundside installations for refit and repair, that way they'll be able to get back in the air as soon as possible. Unfortunately we can't count on getting any more support from them."  
"Marshall looked at the officer in surprise. _Didn't he know that we need as much help as we can get up here? Nevertheless, if they could keep the orbital generators up and running then they might have a chance of holding off the Covenant fleet, but it would be an insanely close call._ "Very good, lieutenant. Tell them to keep the Covenant's ground forces off at all costs." He turned to his Nav officer; "What's the situation with those gravitic anomalies? If they were Covenant warp signatures they would have been here by now."  
The flustered Nav officer frowned at his console, with a look of bewilderment plastered on his features. "I…don't know captain. I'm sure that they were warp signatures but I don't understand why we haven't seen any transfers yet. The Covenant's warp drives are a great deal more sophisticated, they would have transferred the vessels almost instantaneously over such a short span of space." The officer faced Marshall with a look of resignation; "It could either be they're retreating or they could be bringing friends."


	4. Chapter 4: Shiva

Author's Note: Sorry about how long it took to write this chapter. I've been really busy with work and school but I'll probably be able to write more often now. I just want to thank all the people who have taken the time to read my story so far, and a special thanks to NoneAvailable, gta5ccjs, and Halosobsessed1010 for their kind reviews. You probably don't know how much your support means to us authors :) Finally I want to thank Fort Minor Mike Shinoda and all the people who produced The Rising Tied and gave me something to listen to while writing. Remember the Name!

**Chapter 4: Shiva**

**0600 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega**

Plasma burned within several inches of Campbell's head before splattering into the rear of the trench in a spray of superheated dirt and a hiss of steam. Campbell ducked into the trench as more plasma tore into the area his head had occupied milliseconds before, punching more divots into the side of the trench. In one fluid motion he yanked a Frag grenade from his belt, pulled the pin, and hurled the grenade over the trench. "Fire in the hole!" All along the trench marines ducked behind the safety of the trench and seconds later they were showered in displaced mud and gore.  
The battle was not going well at all. However many aliens the Marines killed there were always more to replace them, the warrior-Elites, vulture-like Jackals, and massive Hunters now accompanied the Grunts so that meant that the beleaguered defenders were at least putting up more of a fight than the alien invaders had assumed they would. To make matters worse a whole lot more enemy armor had made it planetside than the navy had lead Command to believe.  
The section of trench that Pvt. Campbell's squad had been stationed; conveniently located near the middle of the trench, was being hit the hardest by the unrelenting alien hordes. Just as Campbell fired off a trio of BR rounds into an oncoming elite, taking its weakened shields offline and punching a dime-sized hole through his cranium. The arrival of upper-ranking Covenant made it all the harder for the besieged defenders to hold their positions. Seconds after the Elite fell to the ground a blob of plasma arced overhead and impacted a Scorpion tank; setting off its munitions and consequently tearing it apart from the inside out. In response, a second Scorpion; seeing the fate of its partner; fired its main cannon over the tide of alien bodies at an unseen target.

Campbell didn't have the time to notice the tank's retaliatory shot pass meters over his head; he was much too preoccupied with the two hulking Hunters that had somehow made their way into the trench. The Hunters were massive; it would almost be comical seeing such huge creatures slogging through the trench; their huge feet sinking into the loosely-packed dirt with every step, armor clipping the irregularities of the hastily dug trench if not for the fact that they were bashing anything and anyone who got in their way, which in the case of the tightly-packed trench, proved to be fatal to the hapless marines. A marine was killed instantly when he was crushed up against the wall of the trench by the Hunter's shield, probably breaking every bone in his body. Another marine had a tire-sized hole blasted in his chest from a close range fuel rod round. The hunters were mere meters away from Campbell when he heard someone screaming to hit the deck; a command that he had nearly hardwired into his brain through many hours of rigorous training that meant to get the hell out of the way fast.  
He heard the rockets flash past him down the trench before impacting on the first Hunter who hardly had time to register that fact that its existence had finally come to an end. The second Hunter, seemingly enraged at the fate of its companion, issued a bestial roar and then broke into an enraged charge towards Pvt. Mellani who was fumbling with the rocket launcher in an attempt to reload before the beast had a chance to unleash its rage upon him. Campbell, who was still sprawled at the bottom of the trench, finally opened his eyes in genuine surprise at the fact that he was still alive, saw the second Hunter charging right towards him and immediately covered them again. "Crap" However, someone up above must have looked kindly upon Campbell that day for the Hunter's giant strides carried him right over Campbell's prone form and continued it's enraged charge towards the fumbling Pvt. Mellani.  
Campbell instantly reached for his weapon but instantly knew that something was amiss when he picked it up. _The weight is all wrong._ He looked at his weapon and saw only a crushed piece of scrap metal that had once been his Battle rifle. _Not good._ Campbell spotted an Assault rifle lying in the dirt next to a dead marine whose neck was bent at an unnatural angle. _Gotta give Mellani enough time to get that rocket loaded. _Campbell ejected the half-empty clip and slammed home a fresh one before opening fire at the exposed back of the Hunter; he'd heard that a single M6 pistol round in the orange flesh of a Hunter's spine could kill it but unfortunately an Assault rifle packed far less punch than an pistol did and it was far less accurate even at a medium range. Apparently the pain from the few rounds that found their mark penetrated the creature's blood-fueled rage because the Hunter turned towards Campbell and started running towards him.  
Hannah reached the edge of the forest. There was about a half-mile of splintered wood smattered throughout hundreds of scorched stumps. From her position she could see the marine's trench line along with the teeming mass that was the Covenant horde.  
Hannah unslung her rifle and propped it on the scorched bark of a felled evergreen tree before utilizing the rifle's 10x magnified scope to zoom in on the battle. The middle of the trench was being hit extremely hard; a pair of Hunters had infiltrated the trench and caused sever damage to the marine line. She saw one Hunter go down with a rocket to the chest but the second one continued straight on down the trench with incredible speed for such a hulking monstrosity. Suddenly, a marine appeared from behind the Hunter with an assault rifle and began firing at it in full-auto; this seemed to piss the thing off even more because it reversed its direction, rather clumsily, and bounded down the trench towards the Marine.  
_What an idiot! Does he have a death wish or something? Better help the fool out. _Hannah aimed towards the revealed orange flesh of the Hunter's neck and loosed a single shot, which penetrated the soft tissue and continued to ricochet off the inside of the Hunter's armor plates. It took several seconds for the Hunter to realize that he was dead, and he finally toppled over into the trench a mere meter or so away from the shocked marine. _You're welcome._

Campbell had just prepared himself for death when the Hunter literally fell to his feet. Before he even had time to wonder who had killed his assailant he was forced to bring his assault rifle up with both hands to block an Elite's downward strike that was meant for his skull. The blow however, never came; Campbell heard the distinctive crack of a sniper rifle and suddenly the eight-foot tall alien fell to the trench floor in almost the same manner as Hunter had. Campbell looked at the alien's corpse and just shrugged; "Looks like it's my lucky day."  
Campbell heard the sergeant screaming over the din and although he couldn't quite make out what he'd said the sudden movement of marines through the auxiliary trenches and the mass of aliens approaching gave him a good idea of what the officer's orders had been. Campbell dove ran into an auxiliary trench and fired his Assault Rifle over his shoulder at full-auto to dissuade any pursuers. Once he reached the secondary trench he saw a couple familiar faces amongst the few marines who had survived the retreat; Mellani had his Jackhammer trained down the length of the auxiliary trench ready for any reason to fire, Wilson was there too, he had ditched his Sniper for an M90 Tactical Shotgun which was ideal for close-quarters engagements such as this. Campbell couldn't recognize anyone else from his squad among the rest of the survivors.  
The Sergeant began to speak; "We need to hold the auxiliary trenches at all costs. If they get past us then they gain entry into the base. We need to consolidate our forces for their next push, otherwise I doubt we'll hold."  
Campbell doubted there were any more forces left to consolidate; there were still a few Marines trickling in through the auxiliary trenches but the majority of the surviving soldiers seemed to have already made it through already. Finally after a full minute of repelling overconfident Grunts a voice issued over the Marines' radios, probably the ground commander, and ordered the Marines to blow the auxiliary trenches with the Lotus anti-tank mines that had been planted there for that very reason.  
A demolitions trooper acknowledged and unslung his pack; he pulled out a detonator, set it to the right frequency and paused for a second, his thumb hovering over the switch that would detonate the mines. "Fire in the Hole!"  
Campbell covered his ears and turned away from the trench.

Hannah moved through the wasteland relatively quickly. Due to the relatively light load she had she found it remarkably easy to move through the carbonized trees and was only about three hundred meters away from the nearest portion of the Covenant horde. She contemplated setting up on a log and picking off as many of the alien bastards she could but a buzz of static changed her mind as she heard the familiar voice of the dispatch officer she had talked to earlier. "Pvt. Davis, do you copy? I repeat, Pvt. Davis, Do you copy?" Hannah nearly jumped into the open; she had almost forgotten about the radio strapped to her left shoulder.  
"Yes, I copy, what is it?" Hannah subconsciously thought for a moment whether or not she should have added a sir in there but then decided that she probably wouldn't live long enough to get reprimanded anyway.  
"Pvt. Davis, report to the command center immediately. That is a direct order from ground commander Trotsky. Do you copy."  
Hannah bit her lower lip. _Wow, Commander Trotsky wants me to go to the command center. I'm in some deep shit._ " Copy, Davis out." Hannah made towards Omega Armory at a run.

**0612 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega**

Rowan entered Omega Armory's command center flanked by two Marines. A tall, graying, unshaven man motioned for him to join him by a large hologram of the battlefield outside that dominated the center of the room, bathing it in an unnatural blue-green glow. Rowan decided that this must be the commanding officer and extended his hand towards him; "Flight Commander Greg Rowan."  
The Officer took Rowans hand in a warm but sturdy grip; " Ground Commander Andrei Trotsky, I'm assuming you need your bird repaired."  
"Well that would be nice, she took quite a beating out there. Anything you could do to get me airborne would be greatly appreciated."  
A small grin spread across Trotsky's features, "Don't worry, you'll be taken care of." From the look on the ground commander's face Rowan could tell that he was leaving something out. "However, I wanted to know if you were interested in doing us a favor."  
Rowan glanced at the holo display, which had changed from an aerial view of the battle between the human defenders and attacking covenant to an image of a large bowl shaped valley. Rowan gave Trotsky an questioning stare "Sure, what did you have in mind?"  
Trotsky's grin grew into a full-blown smile that seemed quite out of place given the present circumstances; "We have been ordered by Admiral Whitcomb over at Camp Hathcock to employ the Shivas."  
Rowan's face was grim but he showed no sign of surprise, deep down he'd known all along that Reach would fall after the battle in space. He doubted that the planet had another hour left. Using the Shiva nuclear-tipped warheads was the last-ditch effort at protecting the orbital generators. Unfortunately the EMP blast created by the nukes detonation could very well fry the very generators they were meant to protect. "What's my target?"  
Trotsky motioned towards a woman in combat gear that had been observing the conversation near the corner of the room. "This is Pvt. Hannah Davis. She's a reconnaissance operative who was operating in sector 2-A. She was the one who saw the main Covenant landing zone in the region, she'll be the one to brief you. Pvt. Davis, you're up."  
Rowan watched as Pvt. Davis pointed at the hologram; "As Ground Commander Trotsky said, this is the main landing zone for the Covenant forces in the region. A Shiva should be able to destroy a significant portion of their forces and, unless they've set up more landing zones, give our boys outside a bit of a reprieve."  
Trotsky broke into Davis's briefing abruptly; "There's also a chance, however slim, that the valley walls will shield the generators from the worst of the EMP blast which is our best bet at this point. However, time is short, every minute we delay, our position is weakened. Time is of the essence."  
Rowan clapped his hands together and looked from Trotsky to the hologram and the image of the alien swarm that covered the valley floor. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Rowan was escorted back to the hangar by Trotsky and Davis as they hurriedly filled him in on as many aspects of his mission as humanly possible. The trio reached the hangar and came upon a row of Longsword interceptors.  
Trotsky turned to Rowan and gestured toward the row of Longswords; "We don't have time to get your fighter up to optimal operating capacity, luckily we have some extras for you to use.  
Rowan felt a pang of anger at the sight of the inert fighters and looked at Trotsky; "Permission to speak freely sir?"  
Trotsky nodded, "Permission granted"  
Rowan glared at Trotsky; "You had half a dozen fighters just sitting here while we were up there risking our assess for you? Why weren't they in the air hours ago?"  
Trotsky just looked at Rowan and spoke in an unruffled voice. "We did send our fighters up, however, six of our pilots were caught en route to our base by a squadron of Seraph's on a strafing run. We didn't have the time to notify anyone by that time."  
Rowan's features softened; "Right, how soon till I can get airborne?"  
"You're Longsword is ready for launch. It's been equipped with our lightest payload as to minimize the intensity of the EMP blast"  
"How big is this bomb?"  
You'll be carrying a 20-kiloton bomb, our smallest one, which we hope will reduce the EMP while still maximizing damage. The Shiva, which is programmed to upon impact so you won't have any altitude restrictions, has an auto-targeting system on it's on board computer so you don't need to worry about aiming. We're requesting an escort for you now. ETA upon embarkation is six-point-three minutes. Good Luck"  
Trotsky extended his arm out and met Rowan's in a firm grip. With that, Rowan headed towards his Longsword, reading the name of the fighter stenciled in red letters was the word _martyriai_."


	5. Chapter 5: EMP

Chapter 5 is up, YAY! Sorry it took a while to post this one, I had a lot of work to do. Hope to have the next Chapter up soon.

**Chapter 5: EMP**

**0620 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega**

Ground CommanderAndrei Trotsky and Pvt. Davis watched as Rowan's new Longsword blasted out of the hangar on the way to its destination. Almost immediately after the interceptor had departed Trotsky's radio chimed out. Trotsky depressed the button "Commander Trotsky here. Report." It took several seconds for a reply.  
Finally, a voice broadcast through the radio, although the words spoken barely cut through the cacophony caused by what sounded like explosions, gunfire, screams, and static. "THIS IS SECOND LUIT……….. TOO MANY ….. REPEAT, … MANY HOSTILES. RE……… REINFORCEMENTS ….. SECONDARY TREN…. ASAP!"  
Trotsky once again pressed the button and broadcast his voice, calmly and clearly to the obviously panicked man at the other end. "Roger that, we'll send as much help as we can. Hold out for a little longer. Trotsky out." Trotsky gave Pvt. Davis a downcast look. "They need as many people out there as possible. Including you."  
Hannah, having heard the radio transmission herself, nodded and turned to leave but was interrupted by Trotsky's voice; "Hannah, do me a favor, will you?"  
Hannah spun around and gave him a quizzical look. "Yes sir?"  
"Give em' hell"  
"Is that an order sir?"  
Trotsky smiled and nodded slightly; "You can consider that an order"  
Hannah face formed a wry grin. "Consider it done." With that, the young private turned and left, leaving Trotsky standing alone in the hangar bay. He knew that she'd carry out her orders well but somewhere deep inside he knew that this was the last time he would ever see the young woman.

**0629 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Reach Northern Hemisphere, 25,000 ft. above Merion River Valley**

Rowan checked the Nav display and then glanced at his radar before beginning the final preparations for the Shiva's launch. His fighter was nearly six minutes from the drop zone but if he ran into any trouble there wouldn't be much time to ready the nuke. He thumbed through the checklist one last time just to be on the safe side and then looked over the warhead's onboard targeting computer. Technically, the techs should have all the technical stuff finalized before he even sat into the pilot's seat but it never hurt to make sure that everything is working perfectly.a  
Suddenly a choppy voice came over through his earpiece and threw off Rowan's train of thought. "Martyriai, this is Aquarius one and two. We've been assigned to escort you to the target."  
Rowan could detect a trace of malice in the pilot's voice which he could easily relate with. The two fighters had most likely been redirected from the main battle in space to protect him. No doubt that the two pilots hadn't been told the reason why they were escorting a single Longsword. They had most likely been forced to leave their squadron mates in order to guard him. Rowan couldn't blame them for being mad; he would be pretty pissed too.  
Suddenly, Rowan's radar went mad; a trio of enemy contacts materialized onto the screen, announcing their arrival in the form of bright, red, blinking dots that identified them as hostiles. _Shit._ Rowan's earpiece buzzed to life once more; it was from one of his escorts. "Martyriai, this is Aquarius one. We have incoming hostiles. Recommend you disengage. We'll hold em' off as long as we can."  
Rowan knew that they didn't stand much of a chance against the Seraphs' but he didn't really have much of a choice. "Roger that Aquarius. Good Luck."  
Rowan steeped his fighter into a dive and dropped about five thousand feet before leveling off at around twenty thousand. His radar showed no sign of any contacts, friendly or otherwise. _Shit._ Suddenly a Seraph screamed towards his Longsword like a bat out of Hell. "Oh Shit!" Rowan brought his interceptor into a steep dive out of the path of the Seraph's projectile. Judging by the numerous alarms that began to fill the Longsword's cockpit with an almost unbearable level of noise, the Seraph's fire had been close, luckily nothing seemed to be damaged. Glancing down at the radar, Rowan could see a second Seraph right behind the other one. Rowan forced his fighter into another steep dive and held it for as long as he could, almost passing out from the intense G-forces caused by the severity of the Longsword's descent that threatened overloaded his fighter's inertial compensators. He noticed that the displayed on the altimeter read 7,000 ft he'd lost a lot of altitude, next to the altimeter the radar still displayed two red dots.  
Without noticing or caring that no one could hear him Rowan exasperatedly exclaimed; "Oh, Come on! These guys just don't quit!" The Seraphs' had followed Rowan's Longsword with little effort; Covenant fighters performed notoriously better in atmosphere compared to their Human equivalents. It was about then that Rowan felt a rough jolt run through the Longsword and his cockpit, if it was even possible, became even louder with the buzzing of alarms. "What the Hell?" The Longsword began to lean toward the right at a thirty-five degree angle. Rowan's HUD showed that his fighter had suffered a minor hit to the starboard engine and that he was losing altitude rapidly.  
Rowan opened up a Comm. channel to Armory Omega Command; "This is Flight Commander Rowan here, I'm under attack by Covenant fighters and my escorts are down. Requesting help. Situation FUBAR." Rowan only received static. Whether it was from interference or a lack of anyone to receive his message he didn't know. By wrestling the Longsword into another dive Rowan preserved Martyriai's life for several more seconds but he was running low on altitude. Rowan could already see the valley floor and could actually see the Covenant invaders making their way towards Armory Omega.  
Given his present circumstances, Rowan though of trying to disengage and maybe attempting an emergency landing somewhere near friendly forces but immediately dismissed the thought. _This whole planet is going down in flames, might as well go out in a blaze of glory. _A flash of plasma tore him back into reality; Rowan re-routed all available power into the remaining engine and gunned it; temporarily catching his two pursuers off guard as they tried to compensate for they're quarry's sudden boost in speed. The Martyriai was close now, Rowan could see the LZ growing larger through the cockpit window; it was swarming with multi-colored specks. There were also numerous Covenant aircraft flying back and forth from orbit to the planet's surface. Several more Seraph fighters came towards his limping fighter as it descended but by then it was to late; I'll see you bastards in Hell." With a dark smirk Rowan slammed his Longsword into a grounded Phantom that had been in the middle of deploying a Wraith tank.  
The heat blast of the atomic explosion incinerated the vast majority of organic material within the landing zone. In addition, hundreds of Covenant aircraft were destroyed within a mile of the explosion, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Covenant. Several seconds later, five-hundred mile-per-hour winds tore thorugh the valley for several miles, their destruction amplified due to the fact that the valley walls channeled the worst of the elements in one direction. In one defiant act, Flight Commander Greg Rowan temporarily halted Reach's destruction, but at the same time sealed its fate.

**0629 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Orbital MAC Station _Validus_ in orbit over Reach**

The Nav officer suddenly yelled across the bridge; "Slipspace ruptures off our Bow!"  
The entire station rumbled as it lined up with the closest Covenant Cruiser. Commander Alvarez watched as the targeting algorithms filled his display, calculating the precise coordinates before firing the massive projectile at its target.  
The Tactical Officer ran up to Alvarez's side suddenly; " We've received a communiqué from The Pillar of Autumn. Capt. Keyes sent a warning that the Covenant fleet is targeting the orbital MAC's! They've already lost two. The pin-point slipspace jump seems to drain the Covenant vessels of power. The Cruisers seem to be dead in space and their power levels are way down!"  
Alvarez stared out the viewport at the enemy Cruiser, there were no lights of any kind, no flash of plasma, and no movement aside from the gentle gravitational nudges caused by the spatial rupture. The MAC round tore into the unshielded Cruisers almost as if to prove the officer's point. "Is it a malfunction?"  
"I don't know sir."  
Again, as if answering Alvarez's question the remaining two ships began moving and Alvarez could see the faint glimmer as the Cruiser's shields began to charge.  
"Well, I think that answer's our question. Target the next Cruiser, fire for effect.  
A round from the neighboring station; _Ardent_, tore through the second Cruiser with little difficulty. Seconds later, _Validus _prepared to fire it's MAC on the last Cruiser but never had a chance to do so.  
Alvarez screamed at Weapons Control; "What are you doing? Open Fire!"  
One of the officers turned to him; "Sir, we can't"  
Alvarez's face contorted into rage; "Well why the Hell not?"  
At that second the entire bridge went dark and the bridge was devoid of any noise whatsoever, leaving it eerily silent.  
Then someone said the one thing that was running through everyone's mind; "The Orbital Generators."  
Suddenly, the emergency generators came online. The suffocating silence was suddenly banished by the familiar humming of electricity and the darkness was slightly lifted as red warning lights light up, filling the bridge with a red glow and shadows.Alvarez shouted out in alarm, "Report!"  
A young officer, Alvarez couldn't tell whoexactly, replied; "Sir, we are low on power. Our supply from the groundside generators has been cut. Right now we're running on auxiliary."  
Alvarez looked nervously at the Cruiser outside as it began charging its plasma turrets. "Can we fire?"  
"No sir, we don't have anywhere near enough power to operate the MAC."  
Alvarez didn't even bother answering; he was completely transfixed by the plasma torpedoes that were coming right towards the _Validus_.

**0639 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****UNSC Destroyer _Argive _inside Reach Battle Zone**

Capt. Marshall was looking at the tactical display whentwo more green outlines disappeared. "Damn! What the Hell just happened! How'd we lose two more MACs?"  
The Tactical Officer turned to Marshall, his face betraying a look of fear; "Sir, report from _Adonis_, the generators are offline, the MAC stations are dead in space."  
"How did they go offline?"  
"The Ground Commander, Commander Trotsky, ordered the use of the Shivas on Covenant ground forces, killed a lot of them too, unfortunately the EMP knocked out the generators."  
Marshall nodded and turned towards the Comm. Officer, "Recall all fighters. Get me Camp Hathcock. Tell them that Captain Marshall needs to speak to Vice Admiral Whitcomb immediately."  
The officer punched a few keys an less than ten seconds later, barely audible over the wash of static; the Vice Admiral's irritated voice filled the bridge. "Tell me that you have some good news Marshall."  
Normally, when the Vice Admiral's mood was anything less than ecstatic a captain wouldn't dare do anything but nod and agree with whatever the Admiral was saying. However, these weren't normal times.  
"Vice Admiral, we're pulling out of the system. The fleet is in shambles, Covenant vessels are moving freely throughout the system, and our Orbital MAC stations are offline permanently. There's no way that we'll be able to hold it for more than another hour. I'm recalling all fighters and will send an escort to get you off-world immediately.  
The Vice Admiral's voice returned after another ten seconds; the communication lag was a testament to how far gone the planet was. "No, I can't give you our exact position. We've left Hathcock; the Covenant stormed the camp half an hour ago. We're using an auxiliary comm. hook-up, harder to detect. The Covenant didn't hit some of the one's in the forest yet.  
"Well we'll try to use some of the orbital sensor relays to locate you, I'm sure there's a couple that haven't been hit yet."  
Along with the familiar hiss of static, the Vice Admiral's voice was accompanied by the loud reports of gunfire and explosions. In the background someone screamed. "Negative ……don't have much time ……..still have unfinished business here."  
There was a sudden shriek that was so severe that several of the officers on the bridge involuntarily covered their ears. Rowan shot a look at the Comm. Officer; "What happened? Did you get the Vice Admiral's location?"  
The officer shook his head; "No sir, the connection has been terminated. We can't tell if it was intentional or a malfunction but we do know it originated from their end."  
Marshall hung his head, "Very well, recall all fighters. We're pulling out." He turned and gazed out at the green-blue planet below him.


	6. Chapter 6: Endgame

**Chapter 6: Endgame  
**

**0640 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega**

Grunts poured in over the top of the trench. The numerous camouflaged machinegun emplacements shot many of the alien creatures, but not nearly enough. One of the alien soldiers who had taken a pistol round to the chest realized he was about to die, armed a plasma grenade and bounded over to a shotgun-wielding Marine, engulfing them both in the inferno. Another marine began firing his Assault Rifle on full-auto into the tide of aliens until his clip ran out, at which point he threw it at a nearby grunt, proceeded to pull out his M6D pistol, and began firing at anything that moved.  
The carnage was terrible. Private Campbell was smattered in multi-colored alien fluids and he was injured in several places. His leg had been peppered with shrapnel from a grenade that had exploded too close and his arm was badly burned where an Elite Commander's Plasma Rifle had hit him; the round melting the ceramic-alloy plating of the armor in seconds, the resulting superheated liquid melting completely through the light fabric and burning flesh. Campbell raised his Assault Rifle up and fired a short burst into a nearby Grunt who had been about to throw a Plasma Grenade. Campbell had quickly learned that the grenades seemed to be the Grunt's weapon of choice and to always keep a watch for deadly blue spheres.  
The Marines were killing dozens of the alien infantry as they came over the trench but it seemed as if for every alien they killed, two more took it's place. The situation was fast becoming hopeless. In a matter of minutes the few remaining Marines were retreating down the length of the trench towards one of the Armory's entrances with the Covenant in hot pursuit.  
Campbell saw Pvt. Wilson fire a shotgun round into an Elite's chest plate point blank, killing the alien instantly. Seconds later, Wilson was hit from four different directions as he was cut off from the rest of the group. The next Marine to die was an Assault Rifle wielding Marine who took a plasma round to the face. Suddenly Campbell was inside a room and a heavy blast door began descending down behind him, cutting off the advancing aliens and trapping the few remaining Marines who had been to slow, or too injured to make it to safety. The screaming was almost unbearable. Campbell half collapsed, half slid down a wall from exhaustion and buried his face in his hands.  
The room was a ten meter-by-ten meter square. Several empty desks were strewn about and papers littered the floor. Shadows filled the room due to the power outage and many of the ceiling tiles were either cracked or gone, probably from the beating that the base endured during the battle, revealing strands of multi-colored wiring that hung like jungle vines.  
Only about sixty or so marines had made it to that trench section's base entrance. Out of three separate Divisions, nearly sixty thousand soldiers, Campbell could only see eight men wearing his Division's red firebird emblem. Private Mellani was not among them. A Corporal stepped up to the door, reached to touch it, and quickly withdrew it instantly after having come in contact with the metal. "Shit!"  
Most of the weary-eyed marines completely ignored the man, but a few of them connected the dots instantly. The Corporal; shaking his burnt hand wildly in an almost comical manner, addressed the battered survivors; "They're burning through the doors! Those bastards are still coming!" Several marines jumped at this discovery and began moving back towards the other end of the room, searching for an exit.  
Shocked at what they were doing, Campbell pulled himself to his feet and yelled after them; "What the hell are you doing? Get back here!" The search was fruitless; the entire base had gone into lockdown. The soldiers were trapped.  
The Marines solemnly distributed their supplies and took up defensive positions throughout the room, finding what cover they could. The Marines stared fixatedly at the door for what seemed like an eternity until one either brave or extremely foolish soldier cautiously ventured up to the blast door. At that very moment the entire door blew inward, crushing the marine under its immense mass; killing him instantly. The remaining marines opened fire on this new threat simultaneously as the first of the Covenant entered Armory Omega.

Marshall winced asanother UNSC identifier vanished from the Tact. Display. Suddenly, three red symbols appeared in front of the fleeing _Argive_, prompting the Tactical Officer to call out a warning to Marshall; "Slipspace ruptures! Sir, three enemy Cruisers have jumped approximately twenty-six thousand kilometers off our bow!"  
Marshall turned, his face expressionless; "I see them, get a targeting solution on the nearest Cruiser. I want our portside archer pods prepped for launch. Target their engines if possible, otherwise go for the plasma batteries."  
"Aye Captain"  
"Load up the MAC as well."  
"Yessir"  
The three Cruisers were temporarily disabled; their shields were down and their weapons were inactive but Marshall knew that they wouldn't stay that way for long. The Covenant fleet; not content with the now conquered Reach, began harrying the surviving UNSC vessels as they limping out of the system without mercy. It seemed that the Covenant did not want any survivors, and they used their advanced Slipspace technology to great effect; small groups of Covenant vessels would make minor jumps to catch up to the fleeing humans with almost complete disregard for the losses they suffered. Three ships had already been lost as a result of the Covenant's tactic and Marshall would be damned if he let the same happen to his ship.  
As the _Argive_ came into range, it fired off a full broadside salvo of Archer missiles into the nearest Cruiser before turning its bow towards the second closest Cruiser and firing a MAC round from a distance of only twelve thousand kilometers. The missiles peppered the Cruiser's unshielded hull, blowing through compartments and eventually hitting a main generator. The resulting explosion completely atomized the Cruiser and threw debris into the two remaining Covenant vessels. The MAC round impacted the second Cruiser just as it's shields began coming back online. The Cruiser's shields flared slightly as they resisted the huge ferric-tungsten projectile for a millisecond before inevitably failing. The MAC round tore through the aft engine arrays and continued onwards, albeit with considerably less mass, into the heart of the third Cruiser, bisecting the Cruiser entirely.  
Cheers filled the bridge until the Tactical Officer cried out in disbelief; "Captain! Two of the second Cruiser's plasma batteries are still powering up! They're preparing to fire!  
"Get us moving now!" Marshall snapped.  
The _Argive's_ engines blasted out at full speed, carrying the ship away from the threat at its maximum velocity. The wounded Cruiser wasn't about to let its prey escape so easily, it wanted revenge; two plasma torpedoes erupted from the vessel and began closing in on the Argive with frightening speed.  
Someone on the bridge shouted out the time until impact; "Plasma torpedoes closing on our location. Impact in thirty seconds.  
Marshall shouted to be heard over the sudden shrill screams of warning sirens; "Engineering, get me full power to engines immediately!"  
Someone shouted back over the din. "Engines are at two-hundred-and-eighty percent captain! Any farther and we risk an overload!"  
"If we don't get out of here then we won't have any engines! Get us out of here now!"  
"Yes, sir."  
Marshall felt the whole bridge begin to tremble as the engines were pushed past their operational limits. In the background the officer who was tracking the plasma torpedoes reported twenty seconds until impact.  
The Tactical Officer suddenly called out in surprise; "Sir, one of the torpedoes is dissipating!  
Marshall cast him a dubious glance; "What do you mean it's dissipating?  
"The first torpedo is expending its energy at an accelerated rate. It's breaking down.  
Marshall was shocked by their luck; "Covenant tech rarely ever just… fails. Could the damage to the ship have affected the Cruiser's weapons systems?  
"That's the best bet sir. I can't think of what else could have happened."  
Somewhere in the background someone shouted; "Impact in ten seconds!"  
Marshall spun back to the Tactical Display. "What's the status with the other torpedo?"  
"No, it's still coming on strong. We aren't going to be able to outrun it."  
"What is the projected area of damage? Will we still be able to engage our translight engines?"  
"Unknown sir."  
"Five seconds to impact! Four, three, two, one!"  
A colossal jolt surged through the ship, sending more than one crewman crashing to the floor. Even Captain Marshall, who had braced himself against a nearby computer console in preparation for the impact, was brought to one knee by the impact's effects on the ship. The torpedo had immolated a good portion of the _Argive's _lower decks but had benevolently spared the vessel's reactor of any significant damage.  
Marshall got to his feet almost instantly. "Damage Report! What's our status?"  
All around the bridge the _Argive's_ officers read out their system's condition readouts.  
"Communications at full efficiency."  
"Navigational systems at optimum efficiency."  
"Engines at eighty percent."  
"Navigational systems operating at optimum efficiency."  
"Life support is at sixty-seven percent efficiency."  
The status reports were interrupted as Shiva, the _Argive's_ AI, materialized in the ship's onboard holotank. "Captain Marshall. I've compiled the ship's data on our current status. Transferring now."  
A plethora of data began scrolling up a portion of the screen; displaying an internal and external map of the _Argive_ and a color-coded layout of several of the ships critical systems.  
Marshall grimly noted the lack of oxygen in several of the vessel's numerous compartments; "Damage Control, seal off the compartments throughout all sections in decks C, D, E, and F.  
The crewman jumped to the task. A loud proximity alert began buzzing seconds later. Two enemy identifiers broke off from the Covenant's main formation and began accelerating towards the _Argive_.  
Marshall called out in alarm; "Navigation, prepare Slipspace generators for immediate departure. Navigation, initiate Cole Protocol. I want a randomized exit vector as quickly as possible."  
The bridge crew rushed to their tasks and within thirty seconds the _Argive_ had jumped out of the system. Minutes later the Covenant Cruisers had determined the _Argive's_ destination coordinates and exited the system in hot pursuit.

**0643 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)**  
**Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega **

A series of explosions ripped through the room; the sudden pressure change causing Campbell's ears to pop. The two Hunters who the grenades had been meant for merely shrugged off the shrapnel and explosions and continued forward into the room. Campbell fired his battle rifle at the nearest behemoth making a point of aiming for the exposed orange flesh. After soaking up bullets for several seconds, the Hunter pair succumbed; their bodies sprawled over Covenant corpses, office detritus, and the bulkhead with a series of dull clunks and sickening crunches. Two-dozen Grunts poured in through the gap as soon as the Hunters had died, filling the room with greenish plasma.  
Campbell slammed another clip into his Assault Rifle without taking his eye off the five-foot aliens. In less than a second he'd brought his rifle to bear on a trio of Grunts who were closest and depressed the trigger; sending a wave of death into the aliens' flesh. Campbell saw the glowing orb milliseconds before someone yelled a warning, if Campbell hadn't reacted the plasma grenade would have hit him, but thanks to thousands of years of human instinct the grenade missed it's target, landing several meters away on an overturned desk, reducing it to splinters a second later. Campbell hosed the Grunts with fire and killed three more of the aliens before the Jackals came.  
Most of the Marines began firing at the glowing energy shields with little effect. A pistol round actually ricochet off an energy shield and hit a Marine in the shoulder, finding its way between the armor plates taking the Marine out of the fight. The Marine's fire became increasingly frantic as the Jackals, numbering near two dozen, began advancing into the room with a host of Covenant following in their protected wake.  
Campbell realized that firing at the shields wasn't going to work and armed a Frag Grenade. Several Marines nearby noticed and followed suit. Campbell rolled the Frag underneath the lead Jackal who stared down at the grenade with a expression of surprise which quickly transformed into fear just as it detonated, sending hundreds of pieces of shrapnel flying into the Covenant's ranks, channeled backwards with the aid of the now-deceased Jackal's energy shield.  
The grenades, leaving a hole in their defensive wall long enough for the Marines to begin slaughtering the survivors, killed more than half of the Jackals and almost a dozen Grunts. As the Covenant forces turned tail the Marines let out a feeble cheer. There was now only twenty or so Marines left alive in the room; many were on the verge of breaking, nerves pushed far beyond their limits.  
A nearby Marine bolted upright and shouted in alarm; "Did anyone else just see that? I saw something moving! Something was moving around the doorway!"  
Someone nearby Campbell muttered something about how the guy was crazy but Campbell wasn't so sure, he thought he'd seen something too.  
The Marine next to Campbell began to yell at the jabbering Marine; telling him to shut up and that he'd just imagined the thing when he was impaled through the chest by a searing blue and white blade of coruscating energy.  
Campbell scrambled out of the way as two more blades flashed into existence nearby. One of the weapons bisected a wounded Marine while the other began approaching him. The strange thing was, the blades seemed to be floating in mid-air, and Campbell couldn't see the weapon's wielder until he caught a glance of the faint distortions of the Elite's outline.  
One of the outlines let out a booming war cry. That was when the Covenant renewed their attack.  
Chaos reigned; panicked soldiers began firing wildly in all directions hitting friend and foe alike, their minds clouded by pent-up fear. The form began approaching Campbell at a run, swinging the energy sword in a wide arc that cut through his chest plating like paper and opened him up. Campbell screamed out in pain but remarkably found the strength to escape the next hit unscathed by sacrificing his Assault Rifle; bringing it up to avert the blow. In the effort of evading the blade Campbell lost his balance, and his weapon, falling to the ground. He desperately reached for his M6 pistol bringing it to bear on the general outline of the Elite before pulled the trigger, emptying the entire clip into the distortion, covering Campbell with a splash of sticky blue ichor. To Campbell's surprise an eight-foot tall Elite materialized in front of him and fell to the floor in a heap. For several seconds Campbell lay where he was, perfectly still, his eyes hazy, hearing his friends and allies scream and die all around him as he slipped into unconciousness.

Hannah Davis ran as fast as her legs would carry her. She'd stayed on station for as long as possible and had already racked up dozens of kills, but now that the Covenant had cracked open Armory Omega there wasn't anything else she could do to help, especially since she'd long ago ran out of ammunition, a patrol of Covenant were hunting her, and enemy aircraft were everywhere. Hannah was about fifty feet from the edge of the forest when she heard the all too familiar wailing sound that she'd long ago associated with Covenant ground assault craft, or Banshees.  
Two of the fliers swooped down on Hannah and opened fire on the sniper, missing her by mere inches. As they approached, Hannah felt the effects of the anti-gravity pods that kept the Covenant vehicles aloft and dived to the ground, the two Banshees passing just overhead, missing her by mere inches. Hannah jumped to her feet and resumed running as fast as her legs would carry her, expecting to be cut down by plasma at any second. To her surprise, the plasma never came; the Banshees had gone and there were no sounds of the Covenant patrol anywhere. Hannah reached the tree line without further incident and collapsed to the floor in a heap.  
Campbell sensed movement and awoke with a start. The dead Elite was still sprawled in front of him, a pool of bluish liquid had pooled around the corpse. Campbell gazed upward, and saw a blurry white figure standing over him. His vision swimming, Campbell shook his head in an effort to clear his battered consciousness. As his eyes came into focus, he realized with despair that it was an armor-clad Elite; it's white armor gleaming even in the twilight of the darkened room.  
The Elite exclaimed its surprise as the seemingly lifeless corpse impossibly reanimated itself. The alien reflexively drew its sidearm and aimed it at Campbell's head, calling out to someone Campbell couldn't see.  
Campbell looked around the room, the sight caused him to break down and cry. Lifeless corpses filled the room. Covenant milled around the wreckage prodding human bodies and engaging in seemingly random acts of destruction. Campbell looked up at the Elite pleadingly as it brought its Plasma Rifle up to his head and fired.

**0647 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)  
****Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega**

Hannah heard a distant rumbling noise that was even louder than the Covenant mortar tanks that had been bombarding Armory Omega for the last hour. Somewhere deep inside her subconscious a voice screamed at her to stay hidden, in the relative safety of the forest, where it was safe. As the rumbling increased, her curiosity got the best of her. Hannah moved to the edge of the tree line, cautiously at first, but after several seconds of not being shot at she stepped out into the open and looked around.

There was a booming sound of thunder that shook the ground, causing Hannah to quite literally jump into the air. Confused, Hannah looked upwards.

The clouds began boiling as the beginning of the Covenant's orbital bombardment penetrated the planet's Statosphere. The plasma impacted Reach's crust a moment later, completely liquefying all organic matterinstantly. Pvt. Hannah Davis hadseconds to contemplate her fate before she was vaporized.


End file.
